Sunday Funday

After all the excitement of the basketball games on Saturday I couldn't let Sunday just be a normal day.  So after going to early church and SS I took the boys bowling and swimming!!  Caroline went with a friend after church to lunch and then to see the movie 'Hidden Figures' which she loved!  So the boys and I also did fun things!  

Will won both games we played.  He scored 90 and 91.  I am a terrible bowler and told the guy we all needed bumpers.  But he didn't give them to me!!  So I tied with Eric with a score of 70.  Pitiful I know.  Justin thinks it's funny that I'm not good at something!  Even though I got 3 strikes between the 2 games, I throw a lot of gutter balls!  Oh well, it was fun.

 Caroline and Lili are still best buds!  Lili has been helping her do the dishes at night.  Now if she could only help Caroline remember to start the dishwasher!  Lili goes up to bed with Caroline every night and sleeps with her.  It's so precious.

 I walk 2 other girls to school in the mornings.  The Cotovsky girls (there are 3 of them, but 2 that go to school) fit like stair steps with my kids.  Clair and Eric are a month apart in age.  Eric is as tall as their second grader and when they walk together it looks like triplets!  I have been asked if Claire and Eric are twins.  And Caroline said that she has even been asked if Claire is her little sister!  Fun friends that we have Friday pizza night with at least twice a month.

 It was a cold foggy morning earlier this week.  Which made the sunrise and hoarfrost look pretty amazing for our walk to school!

Saturdays are now for basketball

 Last Saturday Eric had his last game of the season.  He did really well.  Had 2 baskets, several rebounds, and got to bring the ball down (up?) the court in the second half.  He has loved playing and had a great time.
He made that shot in the picture below!

 After the game getting his certificate and cupcake!

 Then it was on to Will's next to last game.  Justin is gone again on a work trip but will be back in time to see Will's last game this weekend.  Will is a force to be reckoned with on defense!  Not a shock there.  But he gets lots of rebounds and isn't afraid to end up on the floor going after a ball!

He got the rebound in the picture below!

 We then went home for a little bit and then it was off to Lawarence to see the Lady Jayhawks play against K-State.  It was a close and exciting game even though they didn't win.

 3 basketball games in 1 day will make you want to sit in your brother's lap!

Then it was home for dinner and Caroline was left to babysit.  I had a spouse event (that I coordinated) to attend!  I enjoyed painting with other ladies who's husbands work with Justin.

Dinner with friends!

 2 weekends ago we enjoyed a great Saturday night at the Mitchell's house.  Grilled chicken, grilled venison, potatoes, salad, fruit, and lots of laughs!
That's a table full of laughing kids!

 Then s'mores around a fire pit in the driveway.

 And the kids taking turns telling scary stories that weren't scary!  I love the picture of Annabelle telling her story!!

We sure are going to miss the Mitchell's when they move this summer.  But such is the military life.  We would love to be stationed with them again but with them being a Marine family it's not as likely.

Catching up!

I realized it's been almost a month since my last post!  I think about posting but at the end of the day I just haven't had the mental energy to write one.  I've been subbing in a early childhood special education class everyday for the past 2 weeks.  I'm not used to working full-time outside the house so it's been a change for me.  Justin has also been gone that whole time!  The kids are lots of fun, sometimes loud, and teaching me lots.  I've learned some more sign language since some of the kids are non-verbal.  

But last Sunday our Sunday school class had a dinner get together.  I took the kids and it was at this incredible house.  The house was built in 1872 and still had lots of the original stuff in it.  Tiles, oil lamps (now electric), flooring, etc.  We even got a tour!  So fun.  I only took 2 pictures because I didn't want to seem crazy.  But I loved all the wood detailing.

That the front door.

 And the dining room, which was originally the sitting room.

 Since I was subbing at the kids' school I was able to pop in and see Eric's Valentine's Day party.

 That "monster" has his Valentine's in it!

 Caroline cuddling with her fur babies!

 Caught Caroline teaching her brother how to play the Stock Market game.  Her class is participating in that and she is buying and trading stocks to see who can make the most money!

 And after almost 2 weeks being gone, Justin was welcomed home in true kid fashion!  He got home after we were all asleep last night so they all ended up getting in our bed this morning!

Piano Lessons

So I finally got the kids signed up for piano lessons!  Years after buying a used piano it's finally being played, not just a nice place to put pictures.  They are all enjoying it, but Caroline is really loving it.  And they do practice more days than not so I'll take it!  

I'm hoping they stick with it for a while!

A girl in the kitchen

I love it when she wants to bake!  Right now she's not interested in doing much besides making cookies and that's ok with me.  Soon enough I'll have her making dinners!  The kitchen was a mess because I was also in there making dinner (double the mess).  She made a batch of oatmeal chocolate chocolate chip cookies from scratch start to finish without my help!  

A Ski Trip

Last week we took all the kids out of school and met Dad, Marie, Susan, Graham, and Ryan for a week of skiing at Breckenridge.  (lots of pictures ahead!)

To say we had snow would be an understatement!  I think it snowed some everyday.  The heaviest was Monday.  It was a heavy wet snow and we had 17 in. overnight.  It made for some great powder skiing and skiing through the woods in the fresh snow was fun for everyone.

The first 2 days Eric and Ryan had lessons.  Caroline and Will had 1 full day of lessons.

 Smore's after skiing and before the hot tub were fun!

 The big kids had school work to do and went to Mimi's school to get their work done!  Thanks again for helping them Mimi.  They were all caught up!

 With all the snow we didn't have great views of the mountains but in the picture below you can see Me, Caroline, Grandaddy, and Susan.

 Stopping for a bathroom break and a warm up.

 This was taken the first morning at breakfast.  They were a little excited!!

 Graham helped teach Caroline A LOT!  She loved following her Uncle Grahammie and did so well!

 The kids absolutely love the specially made kids adventure trails through the woods.  There's Rip-a Roo's Forest with a tunnel and 2 bridges and another one (name escapes me) with a snake and a spider.  There's fun turns and going through the woods.  We did these multiple times a day.

 The little boys enjoyed arting (they all did actually) while the big kids did homework.  Mimi and Grandaddy's wall was covered in all sorts of colorful artwork by the end of the week!

 Looking for a ride to the hot tub?  Look no farther!  Grandaddy and a luggage cart to the rescue!

 Oh the giggles!  And screams!  So many smiles and many more attempts to get Grandaddy to do that again.

 Our view from the hot tub!  Not to shabby and it was magical to sit there looking at the mountain while the snow is falling.

 We filled a tub every afternoon!

 We also played games.  Sevens, Blockus, dominos, and watching the big football game.

 Such a great group of skiers!

 One day we were taking a break, but dad, Susan, and I decided we would go out just the 3 of us to do some more challenging terrain.  We had a great time!  Went to the very top and skied the bowls and double blacks.  Made some fresh tracks!  We skied about 16 miles and came back tired!

 The snow was thick and challenging for sure.  The sun was out when we were at the top that morning so it was perfect.  Below Susan is heading down.

 The dad's had the boys (Mimi and Caroline hung out) and took them for a walk downtown.  Found Eric's place!  His legs look so long in that picture.

 The boys checking out what Grandaddy was doing.

 With the wet snow and all the other snow the pine trees were covered and just beautiful!

 One of the highlights was when Graham and Justin helped the kids turn the activity room at the hotel into a American Ninja Warrior course.  They LOVED it and talked and talked about it!  It was a great way to get some energy out.

It was a great week and we had a great time.  We had to cut it a little short to avoid driving across eastern Colorado is a snow storm and western Kansas in an ice storm.